Flu-like symptoms keep Newtown band home

Eight fall ill at Pennsylvania competition

By Melissa Bruen, STAFF WRITER

Published
6:34 pm EST, Tuesday, November 10, 2009

NEWTOWN -- Members of the Newtown High School marching band and color guard left the state for Pennsylvania on Friday afternoon, anticipating a fun-filled weekend at Hershey Park and the annual Northern States Championship competition in Allentown on Sunday.

The weekend was certainly a memorable one.

After displaying flu-like symptoms, eight students had to be picked up by their parents and driven more than 3 1/2 hours home from their hotel in Reading, Pa., between Friday night and Sunday morning.

They "got there and felt so sick they were separated and put into a controlled area ... until their parents could come and pick them up," said Dr. Ana Paula Machado, the district's medical adviser, who went to Pennsylvania to support the band but did not ride the bus.

Not only did illness leave the band and color guard short eight members during one of the last big competitions of the season, but everyone on the trip -- two bus loads worth of students, according to Superintendent Janet Robinson -- had to stay home from school Monday.

They also left the competition after playing, instead of staying to hear other bands and the judging results.

Machado said the band has 95 members.

"Students who were ill were sent home; persons arriving home (Sunday) evening on the bus are being directed to remain out of school on Monday," said Principal Chip Dumais in an audio recording he attached to an e-mail to parents Sunday.

Machado said the eight band students approached the chaperones over the three days to say they were ill. Their symptoms included the sudden onset of malaise, muscle aches, fatigue, sore throat, headache, cough and fever.

Those students were sent home during the weekend so they would not be in further contact with the other students.

"My thought process was that I knew there is flu in the community, and that these kids were on the bus for a long period of time for the drive down, and that two kids immediately needed (Friday night) to get sent home for feeling ill," she said.

Robinson said in addition to students, two high school teachers -- band director and music teacher Kurt Eckhardt and the assistant band director were also quarantined Monday.

Students stayed at the Inn at Reading on Friday and Saturday nights, in preparation for the U.S. Scholastic Band Association Northern States Championship on Sunday at J. Birney Crum Stadium in Allentown, Pa.

In addition to rehearsing for Sunday's show, the band spent several hours Saturday at Hershey Park After Dark.

"By the end of Sunday morning, there were eight band members that needed to be sent home because they were too ill to perform," Machado said Monday.

"I also knew that (flu spread) because of a school trip (then), and that was part of my thinking," she said. "I thought that the down side of missing one day of school to hopefully prevent super-spread outweighed the negative of missing the day."

Robinson said she'd like to encourage parents to have students get the H1N1 vaccination, but they are not yet available for the high school age group.

She said students who were forced to remain home Monday were marked as excused and will be able to make up their work.

To avoid similar situations, the district has "decided to not take any prolonged field trips. This is a good lesson," Robinson said.

On Monday night, Robinson said band students who were quarantined Monday will be able to come back Wednesday, "Unless I hear otherwise from our medical adviser."

Machado said as long as students have not experienced symptoms in 24 hours they will be allowed to return to school.

Health-related questions should be directed to Dee Cupole, Newtown public school nurse supervisor, at 203 426-7649.